United Commonwealth of Planets

The United Commonwealth of Planets is one of the two main superpowers in the galaxy. Formed during the earliest stages of The Dark Age, the Commonwealth is a collection of several thousand planets and species. Each planet is represented in the Federal Senate by four Senators and a fluctuating number of Representatives depending on the current population in the Federal Assembly.

The Commonwealth's primary enemy is the Star-Empire of Traxxis, having been stuck in a Cold War for the past twenty years after the Battle of Vinnae.

The Commonwealth is politically and ethnically dominated by humans due to serious anti-alien bigotry, a result of the War of Annihilation against the Illtaran Confederacy.

The Commonwealth government is split into 20 departments:
 * Department of the State
 * Department of the Interior
 * Department of National Defense
 * Department of Domestic Defense
 * Department of War and the Armed Forces
 * Department of Electronics
 * Department of Food and Agriculture
 * Department of the Treasury
 * Department of Investigation and Security
 * Department of Justice
 * Department of Commerce and Trade
 * Department of Education
 * Department of Health and Social Services
 * Department of Development
 * Department of Veterans' Affairs
 * Department of the Hyperlanes
 * Department of the Post
 * Department of Cultural Preservation
 * Department of Intelligence
 * Department of Transportation
 * Department of Research and Development

Fall of the Federation
"'DEFCON 1, REPEAT DEFCON 1. THE HUNTER IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE WOLVES' -Volki Emergency Communication System"

The United Federation of Planets was a loose alliance of species and minor nation-states stretching across the galaxy. During the later half of the 22nd century the Federation government began to slowly centralize the government, building a more powerful state.The Volki were growing concerned that the Ivareta would overwhelm them with a more united nation.

In 2164 the Federation Council voted to give the central government even more authority than ever before. This was the final straw. Volki agents began plotting the collapse of the Federation. They would wait until the Federation was fully dependent on the Council to make their strike.

On July 12, 2194 Councilman Olra Ca'vran, the first nonhuman on the Council, announced that by 2210 the Federation would be fully centralized. The Volki began organizing their plan according to this, slowly evolving from destroying the Federation to seizing control of it.

In 2198, however, the Federation's primary hurtle to increased centralization, the Party of Independent Systems, was banned following a corruption investigation. This threw a wrench in the plans of the Volki, who were forced to hurriedly speed up their plans, making sloppy mistakes that would compromise their coup.

On December 12, 2199, A Volki agent was arrested by Commonwealth officers and, after three days of interrogation, confessed to the planned coup. He did not, however, reveal the participation of the Volki. Several conspirators were arrested, but by Christmas any hope of stopping the coup was extinguished as Volki agents began organizing militias.

Allied with a group of anarchists called the European People's Liberation Army, the Volki launched their coup on December 31, 2199. A nuclear bomb was detonated in Geneva, wiping out the entire Federal Council and cutting off the head of the Federal government. Military officers on Terra and beyond attempted to assert control of the Federation, but many were killed as fighting broke out across the galaxy. Armories were raided on Forscoest and Galahad, government buildings on Turnai and Doria were bombed, and hundreds of planets had declared independence by the end of the day, thus sparking the Dark Age.

Formation of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth security officers were able to quickly secure Terra and Luna, as well as the Sol Defence Fleet. An emergency Provisional Government was created, known as the short lived Terran Directorate. At the head of this state was the highest ranking surviving officer on Terra, leader of the Sol Defence Fleet Rear Admiral Valentine Simon. Admiral Simon quickly exerts her authority in the Directorate, and on January 2, 2200, she declares the United Commonwealth of Planets.

Immediately, all planets in the Sol and Centauri System swore their loyalty to the Commonwealth. Now Secretary-General Simon begins organizing her new new government, including some of the brightest minds of the galaxy. The Commonwealth quickly forged an alliance with their old friends the Dar'ians and the Akseki. The Commonwealth set about rebuilding their military and state in preparation for the coming conflict.

Formation of the Commonwealth
The Dark Age was a defining era for the galaxy. Across the stars battles raged as local warlords battled for dominance. Fleets of ships would ram into each other in brutal melees over a handful of rocks. Entire species were extinguished in mass genocides, the likes of which had never been seen before. Crime and extreme poverty gripped the galaxy as famines swept across whole planets. Areas that had previously specialized in mining or production were suddenly cut off from food shipments. The very force the brought the galaxy together and connected thousands of worlds had also caused their downfall.

While the galaxy starved, the people of the Sol System prospered under the Commonwealth. Farms built onto the Ring, a massive space station orbiting the Earth, produced excess amounts of food for the thirty billion people scattered from the darkest chasms of Pluto to the floating cities of Venus, from the hills and forests of Mars to the concrete jungle of Terra.

As the homefront quickly stabilized, the Secretary-General and the rest of the government set about setting up a government that could not be so easily neutralized by a terrorist attack. The government was modeled heavily on that of the late United States of America and United Republic of the Americas. The government was split into three branches: the Secretariat, or Executive Branch, the United Federal Congress, or Legislative Branch, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth, or Judicial Branch, and the Council of Marshals, or Military Branch. The weakest of the four was the Council of Marshals, as the other branches were fearful of a military coup. After the central government had been formed, led by Simon as first Secretary-General serving two eight year terms, the Commonwealth set about organizing the lower bureaucracy. The initial Commonwealth was split into four Sectors (States), Terra, Centauri, Barnard, Dar'ia, and Colish. Each Sector was ruled by a government that was a smaller, less powerful version of theCentral Government. These Sector Authorities could administer the territory as long as they obeyed laws, followed the Constitution and maintained people's rights, and did not attempt to subvert the authority of the Central Government.

The Cadrian War
Once the government had been restored, law and order were restored, and the Commonwealth's territory established, Valentine Simon began an aggressive campaign of conquest and expansion. Many planets formerly controlled by the Federation that were close trade partners with Terra were more than happy to sign on. For the first ten years of the Commonwealth, there was almost no conflicts, with occasional pirate raids being the only real danger. However, in 2211 the Commonwealth met their first real challenge, the Cadrian Union. The Cadrians had been troublesome even before the federation had fallen, often starting ethnic strife between them and other species. Once the Federation had fallen and the local security forces withdrew to Terra the Cadrians massacred the non-Cadrians and enslaved any survivors. They then began unifying their native planets into a united government.

On June 20, 2211 a Commonwealth task force sent to restore contact with the planet Shovan, only to discover the world under siege from a Cadrian fleet. After the Commonwealth helped drive back the Cadrians, the Shovan United Clans swiftly joined the Commonwealth and gave them valuable information regarding the Cadrians. Considered a minor threat to the Commonwealth, the Central Government sent a small fleet of two dozen starships led by Commodore David van Rygen. After ambushing the Cadrians in the Battle of Ghoradan, the Commonwealth felt assured that the Cadrians were no threat. As such, the heavier cruisers were withdrawn to assist with subjugating pirates threatening the Terran Trade Route. After seizing a handful of minor worlds the Commonwealth attacked the Cadrian capital, Olark. However, when the Commonwealth fleet arrived, they discovered a massive starfleet that far outnumbered the Commonwealth. In the initial skirmish van Rygen's ship was crippled, and so the Commodore sacrificed his life to give his fleet a chance to escape by ramming the Cadrian capital ship, badly damaging it. In his place Captain Andrew Nelson was placed in command. With limited time before the Cadrians attacked the Commonwealth's weakened Northern Frontier, Nelson organized his fleet into a desperate attack. Using the larger light cruisers to draw enemy fire, Nelson directed the smaller, faster frigates to ambush the Cadrian fleet with their torpedoes. the frigates successfully devastated the unshielded rears of the Cadrian fleet, obliterating many ships. As the Cadrian fleet attempted to reposition and attack the frigates, the cruisers moved in to cut them down. The Cadrian fleet was then annihilated, leaving the capital undefended. Instead of launching a ground invasion against the well armed Cadrian Guard, Nelson ordered a devastating orbital assault on the planet. Unexpectedly, the orbital attacks caused a mass environmental collapse. The northern icecaps were vaporized, with mass floods, before a nuclear winter-like state falling on the planet. Within a year the Cadrians had gone extinct. Nelson was deemed a hero and awarded a multitude of metals. However, Nelson was horrified by what he had done, spending the rest of his life trying to deal with his actions.

Northern Frontier
To the North of the Commonwealth were several thousand minor, squabbling system-states. The most powerful of these states was the Dorash Khanate, an oppressive tribalistic nation ruled by Khan Dor. Dor was an Enrini from the planet Kavinda, serving as leader of the Kavindani Security Forces. After the fall of the Federation, Dor took control of Kavinda and a neighboring star system. By 2113 the Khanate had captured about 27 systems and was threatening a trade partener of the Commonwealth, the Republic of Gavran. After the Gavrani President asked Secretary-General Simon for military support. On August 7, 2113, three Commonwealth fleets quickly pushed into Dorash space, and the less advanced Darashi star fleet was easily brushed aside. After a few weeks of fighting Commonwealth forces reached Kavinda. Dor led his forces on a final suicidle attack against the numerically and technologically superior Commonwealth. The entire fleet was destroyed, and Dor was killed when a light bomber destroyed the bridge of his flagship. After Dor's death and the fall of Kavinda the Khanate disintegrated and was quickly annexed by the Commonwealth. As a result of the Commonwealth's actions during this conflict dozens of star systems began applying for membership. By January of 2114 the Commonwealth had doubled in size, and most of the Orion arm was under its authority.

The Perseus Arm
The first significant threat to the Commonwealth was the Persieun Empire. A collection of star systems ruled by an Imperator, the Empire had been formed by former military general Aldin KiKara.KiKara had rallied his men against the decadent democratic powers of old and quickly conquered a small fiefdom. The most important conquest, however, was when the planet Morros fell to the Perseun military in 2112. Morros had been a major weapons plant before the war due to the abundance of the metal-like material Morrosium. The former factories had been abandoned and all that remained on the planet was a small group of Commonwealth loyalists located in the central command building. The Perseun military, not wanting a protracted siege, instead opted to destroy a nearby dam that had been holding back a large lava flow. The now freed lava quickly rushed down and consumed the complex, but not before the inhabitants were able to seal the facility and warn the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, many of the members would die after the inhalation of poison fumes. After two weeks, all but one of the approximately 400+ loyalists were dead, with the last being a member of the Callindi, a race of humanoids capable of filtering air through their throat. After the loyalist outpost fell, the Perseuns set about rekindling the old factories of Morros. By early 2113, almost half of all factories and mining facilities were up and running, and the Perseuns were in the midst of constructing a formidable fleet. The Commonwealth, not wanting a powerful enemy to their south, quickly mustered their fleet and ground forces and attacked the Perseuns outer-most outpost, Recon Base Dynamo. The Commonwealth easily overwhelmed the minor defenses and took command of the base, rechristening it the Novo Constantinople. The Commonwealth fleet then drove deeper into Perseun territory. After a string of victories the fleet arrived at Morros, only to be met by a Perseun fleet of equal size and strength. At the Battle of Morros on July 13, 2113, the two fleets engaged in a brutal melee, in which hundreds of starships and thousands of lives were lost. After almost two days of fighting the Perseuns were forced to withdraw, barely escaping. The defenders on Morros, fearful of suffering a similar fate to that of the Cadrians, quickly surrendered. The lone survivor of the original Commonwealth loyalists had, by this time, been driven insane. Shortly after being brought aboard the Commonwealth flagship, he killed his guards and stole a small fighter. After he entered warp his signal was lost and what became of him is unknown.

With his primary production base, Morros, completely destroyed, KiKara withdrew his most powerful forces to his capital, New Tyrol, and goaded the Commonwealth into coming at him. In reality, however, he and a small group of loyalists had fled the Perseun Empire to the Sagittarius Arm, where he lived until his death in 2139 when the planet he was on suffered a devastating climate disaster. In the meantime, the Commonwealth steamrolled the fragmented remnants of the Perseun Empire. By September of 2113 the Perseun Empire collapsed and surrendered, resulting in the Commonwealth domination of the southern half of the Perseus Arm.

New Leadership
By 2115, Valentine Simon's time as Secretary-General was coming to a close. So far in the Commonwealth Congress their had been a shocking amount of bipartisanship within the Federal Senate and the Federal Assembly, but as the end of Valentine's second term approached its end the first fracture in Federal politics began to appear. The main issue was on how the Commonwealth was to expand, with the Federalist Party supporting a slower, more peaceful assimilation of neighboring powers while the Democratic-Republicans supported an aggressive campaign of expansion to try and regain the power lost with the Federation. For the 2116 election the two parties put forth their candidates. For the Federalists ran Armann Olvirsson, while the DR ran Barbara Sepulveda. Secretary-General Simon refused to back one candidate or the other, as she was well aware whoever she supported would easily win the election. Major campaigning by both parties continued throughout the year as the approached Election Day, January 12. The Federalists found their ideals taking route with the educated and non-humans, while the DR found support with the military and the lower class. When the elections finally arrived it was incredibly close, with both sides pulling in millions of votes. Over 97% of all eligible voters came out to vote, higher than any percentage ever since. At the end of the day, the Democratic-Republicans barely edged out a victory, winning the popular vote by only 12 million votes. The next day Olvirsson congratulated Sepulveda, as did Simon, and on November 4, 2116, Barbara Sepulveda became Secretary-General of the United Commonwealth of Planets.

In the Legislative Branch, however, it was a different story. Of the 300 seats in the Senate, 148 went to the Federalists, 134 to the DR, with the last 18 going to various independant candidates. As for the 1,000 seats in the Assembly, 589 went to the Federalists, 407 went to the DR, and the remaining seats went, again, to various Independants.

Valentine Simon would retire to her home in Boston after she waas succeeded, where she would live quietly until her death in 2149.

Contact With The Illtarans
With the Federalists dominant in the Legislative Branch but the DR in the Executive and Judicial, a mix of the two party's policies was adopted, with military expansion against dangerous foreign powers and peaceful annexation against less hostile nations. Several other political parties began to form in the early 2100's, such as the Centrist Party, the social democrat Populist League, and the anti-centralization League of the Golden Eagle. Nonhuman rights organizations also formed, though they had limited power in the legal system. By 2220 the Commonwealth was made up of several hundred planets.